Heat
by SasuNaruForever17
Summary: He was sixteen; it was time to man up and face his problems. And since the prospect of facing such problems head on was terrifying, he planned to ignore it for a while and hope that it went away.


It was another Friday night, roughly around eight o'clock, and Yuki found himself sprawled out on the couch, mindlessly flipping through television channels. He _would_ have been fishing but all his friends were busy. Even Haru, which was hard to believe. Keito was in the kitchen, humming quietly and washing the dishes. They had just eaten hot pot, and Yuki was seriously starting to question his grandmother's sanity.

It had to be about thirty two degrees inside the house and Yuki was probably suffering from some sort of heat stroke. He didn't know. What he _did_ know was that it was insanely hot.

"Grandma, _please_ can we turn on the air conditioning. I think I'm going to melt."

Keito let out a small laugh, rising the pates of soapy bubbles. She set them on the drying rack carefully.

"Now now, a little heat won't hurt you. And have you forgotten what I told you yesterday? The air conditioning is broken. There is someone coming on Monday to fix it."

Yuki groaned, turned off the television, and let the remote control drop to the floor. He squinted at the ceiling fan, trying to focus on the rapidly swirling blades. They were going at full speed; too hard to keep track of.

"I don't think I'll be able to make it through the weekend," Yuki whined before letting himself slide onto the wooden floor beside the remote. It was only slightly cooler.

Keito clicked her tongue and untied her apron. She hung it on the hook beside the sink and then pulled out a chair at the dining table. Now was a good a time as ever to read the newspaper. The sound of the front door slamming open could be heard suddenly.

"I'm home! Yuki! Keito!" The sliding of the front door was accompanied by the sound of shoes hitting the floor and feet padding along the hallway.

"Welcome home," Keito and Yuki managed to say in unison.

Yuki pulled himself from the floor. He wanted to know where Haru had disappeared to all afternoon since the other boy hadn't told him anything when he had left that morning. He succeeded in standing, feeling slightly lightheaded. Sleeping tonight was going to be a major pain in the-

Haru came flying into the living room, all smiles as usual. But what he was wearing was really _not_ usual. Now, Yuki wasn't one for fashion and he generally didn't care what other people wore, but what Haru had on was something that was able to leave him pretty much speechless.

With a few more steps Haru was standing behind the couch. The overhead light hit his overly large floppy sun hat and cast a shadow over his face that sort of creeped Yuki out. But besides some weird hat, Haru was wearing something along the lines of a plain lavender summer dress. It had a small pink cartoon rabbit face on the chest and the hem stopped just at his knees. The sleeves were cut very short and the collar came down in a scoop. Haru grinned at Yuki and spun around, making the skirt fly up and twirl with him.

Yuki stood there, stiff as a board. That underwater feeling started to wash over him and it was worse than the other times. It wasn't a cold water, it was warm and suffocating. The surprised sound from his grandmother snapped him out of it a second later.

"Keito! Keito! Do you like it? Sakura-chan let me borrow it!" Haru announced and gave another spin. To Yuki's dismay Keito smiled at Haru and clapped her hands.

"You look good, Haru! The color matches your eyes."

Yuki felt a shiver go through him as Haru turned and locked eyes with him.

"Do you like it, Yuki?"

In all his sixteen years of life, Yuki had seen a handful of weird stuff, but this just took the cake. The fact that Haru was wearing a dress didn't shock him as much as… that fact that Haru actually looked really _really good_ in it. As good as a lanky, possibly much older than him, alien fish disguised as a human could look anyways. It didn't help that he could also pass as a girl. His voice matched that outfit way more than his usual jacket and pants.

Yuki knew he had to say something but he didn't exactly know what. He knew his face had to be looking pretty scary at the moment. He swallowed and tried to calm down, the swirling hot air from the fan not making it any easier. With a forced cough he turned and sat back down on the couch, facing away from Haru. He silently and begrudgingly thanked the heat for making his skin quite red, it hopefully hiding the blush that had unwantedly risen on his cheeks.

"Y-you… Why are you wearing that?" Yuki forced himself to say.

Haru grabbed the back of the couch and leaned over it, hat hitting the side of Yuki's head. The other boy didn't respond to the tap, just stared at the floor.

"Why? Because it's really hot out and in this I don't feel hot!" Haru stated proudly. Yuki scrunched up his face, which was an automatic reflex. Of course a dress was cooler. There's basically nothing to it. Just a flimsy piece of cloth!

"Haru, boys are not supposed to wear dresses…" Yuki stopped there, not really sure he wanted to try to explain things to Haru. He'd been doing a lot of that since had Haru first arrived and it was starting to become tedious.

Haru tilted his head and his hat fell to the side. Quickly, Haru scooped it up and off of his head and instead placed it on Yuki's. He laughed and jumped over the back of the couch to land on it next to his friend.

"Why not? I don't get it, Yuki! Explain!"

Yuki scowled under the hat and almost grabbed it and threw it. Then he remembered that it was Sakura's and he didn't want to damage it. Gently, he picked it up off his head and set it on the arm of the couch to his right. He still didn't look at Haru.

"Because that's just how it is. I don't know why. Just… go take it off!" _Because I don't like how I feel when I look at you in that! It's just weird. _Yuki tried to push himself away from having a mental breakdown but it was becoming increasingly more difficult. To make things much worse, Haru took a hold of Yuki's arm and started tugging on it.

"Yuki, I won't do it! I don't know what you're talking about! Why Yuki? Why can't I wear this?" His pulling resulted in Yuki being rocked back and forth. Haru clinging to him just made it even warmer, extremely uncomfortably so. Yuki abruptly stood and was able to shake Haru off. He muttered that he was going to get something and took off towards the connected kitchen. Once there he threw open the freezer door. The cold air floated out and breezed over his face, giving him a relaxing moment. He let out a breath and took the box of popsicles that were calling to him.

After doing so Yuki closed the door, turned, and leaned in close to his grandmother. He whispered out 'help me' and glanced in the direction of the living room. Haru was still on the couch and appeared to be pouting, arms crossed. Keito gave Yuki a glance, smile still on her face.

"Grandma, what do I tell him?" Yuki tried his best not to sound too desperate but he knew his grandmother could tell he was.

"Just let him be, Yuki. Haru is allowed to wear what he wants and so are you. We all are free to choose what we do, so let him have some fun. Plus, I don't think you actually dislike it, do you?"

Yuki froze in place and let the usual drowning session wash over him, complete with too hot of water and all thoughts lost. Keito laughed softly at his nervous face and he slowly regained control over himself. Did he like Haru in that dress? Maybe… he did… What he did know was that the popsicles had to be melting by now, so he turned away and stiffly walked like a robot back to the living room couch. He sat down next to Haru and held out the box for the other boy, who took one and expertly ripped open the wrapping. Yuki followed suit, happy he managed to pick the grape flavor.

He set the container on his knees and mindlessly read over the different favors listed on the box as his thoughts film reeled through his head. _Grape. Do I like how Haru looks in that dress? Cherry. Maybe I do and maybe I don't. Strawberry. Why even bother to explain to him anything when he's just an alien and will never really understand anything about humans. Raspberry. Okay that was a little harsh, but still. Mango. It doesn't matter if I like how he looks since he's just a fish, right? So it's fine. It doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter…_

"Yuki? What flavor is this? I don't get it."

Yuki blinked and came back into the real world. He was finally starting to feel less light headed because of the cold popsicle. He turned to find Haru attempting to push his popsicle in Yuki's face. The red haired boy moved back a bit and took a look at it. It was red. Well, that could be any one of the three out of the five flavors. Great. He'd have to taste it or refuse Haru, and refusing Haru was too much work right now.

Yuki leaned back in and with his free hand took hold of Haru's and guided the popsicle closer to his mouth. Haru watched intently as Yuki gave the dessert a quick swipe with his tongue.

"Cherry," Yuki said and pulled away, putting his own grape flavor back into his mouth. It was almost gone unfortunately.

"Cherry. I like cherry. Yuki, do you like cherry? It's sweet and good! I'll have to tell Coco she has to try cherry."

Yuki nodded absent mindedly and watched Haru out of the corner of his eye. The boy was pretty much lapping at the popsicle like a dog and it was melting much too fast for someone to just lick it. Yuki pulled the now clean stick from his mouth and pointed it at Haru.

"Eat faster, you're starting to make a mess."

Haru smiled, shook his head 'no', and continued to only lick the cold treat. It was already melting into sticky red juice on Haru's hand, who appeared to either not care or not notice. Yuki frowned at him and watched as a line of juice made its way down Haru's wrist, to his elbow, and then plop, onto the nice clean dress he was wearing.

"Haru! Stop! That's going to stain!" Yuki generally would not care but that was Sakura's dress and yea, Sakura may have foolishly lent it to Haru for the night, but he'd be damned if he let Haru mess it up. He hated when Sakura was sad (didn't everybody?).

"Eh? Oopsie. How do I make it go away?" Haru used his free hand to rub at the spot, which made Yuki cringe.

"No! Don't rub it in! Just quick, take it off!"

Haru sprung off the couch and attempted to remove the dress one handedly before managing to smear a whole lot more popsicle on it. Yuki just about screamed at him but instead frantically grabbed the hem and pulled it up and over Haru's head as fast as he could. He rushed it to the kitchen and demanded his grandmother help him fast. She agreed, all smiles, and took it from Yuki and made her way to the laundry room with it.

Yuki let out a much relieved sigh before throwing his stick in the trash bin and walking back to the living room. He knew he now needed to tell Haru to go take a bath.

"Haru, you better- why are you naked?!" Yuki yelped and turned on his heel, his back to Haru who was sitting, indeed naked, on the couch, working on a brand new popsicle.

"Hm? I only had on the dress. It was too hot for that underwear stuff." Yuki wasn't even surprised by the way Haru talked so openly and like everything he said made perfect sense. He also _knew_ he shouldn't be surprised by the whole lack of clothes, since Haru was known to walk around in too short of shorts or sometimes nothing when he was just out of the bath. He had said something about it helped him not to dry out as fast. Whatever that meant. Fish-aliens were weird.

Yuki slowly regained confidence and told himself that it was just Haru and he was a boy like himself and it was fine, because his grandmother was washing the dress and wasn't here to see. Yuki turned back and looked at Haru, who sat innocently on the couch, eating his second popsicle. Yuki then told Haru that he should _not_ be sitting naked on any furniture that wasn't in the bathroom and proceeded to grab onto Haru and pull him away from the living room then down the hall. He stopped short, though, forgetting that the box of popsicles was still on the couch, so he sprinted back and put them away. He regrouped with Haru a minute later.

"Okay, now get in the bath. I'll go find some clothes for you to wear."

"But Yuki, it's too hot for baths and clothes! I don't wanna! Nope!" Haru furiously shook his head and tried to push Yuki away, but like hell that was gonna happen. Yuki planted himself firmly to the floor and gave Haru a shove through the bathroom doorway. Haru fell gracefully to the floor, rolled, shot back up a second later, and then jumped and perched himself on the edge of the tub. Yuki felt his face go impossibly hot and he quickly turned away, bracing himself against the door frame. He didn't know why he was suddenly feeling all this embarrassment but it was getting on his nerves.

"Just take one! Please. You can use cold water instead." Yuki counted to ten, then backwards from that, and then repeated it. He needed to calm down. All the running around was making him heat back up which was not ideal. From the tub Haru put on a displeased frown but flipped the tap to let the water run. Yuki once again let out a heavy sigh before stepping away from the bathroom and up the stairs to his room. He found a pair of boxers that were slightly too small for him along with an overly large T-shirt he had gotten for his birthday last year from his grandmother's friend. These would do just fine.

Yuki folded the clothes and suddenly realized he was sweating a lot. Which he really couldn't help with what had been going on. The hot weather, no air conditioning, and Haru wearing that damn dress… Yuki wished that the popsicle would have had a more of a permanent cooling effect. But sadly, his great idea had only led him to being more dizzy and confused. Dizzy from heat and confused about what was going on in his head (and maybe in his heart too, oddly enough). The whole night was something he was going to have to reflex eventually.

With clothes neatly in tow Yuki made his way back down to the bathroom. The door was still open and Haru sat quietly in the tub, head on his arms which were resting on the edge. He had his eyes closed and Yuki wondered if he was asleep. He quietly tip toed in and set the clothes on the back of the toilet. He was about to leave when a hand shot out and latched on to the back of his shirt. Yuki felt himself fall backwards in slow motion, the backs of his knees hit the side of the tub and he tried to curl inward. With a loud splash he was in the tub, legs hanging out, head slightly sore form where it managed to hit the wall opposite.

Yuki brought a hand up to touch the growing bump on his head and shot a glare at Haru, who gave him a peace sign and a wink. The temperature of the water suddenly hit him and Yuki felt… finally more cool. The water wasn't freezing or scalding, but somewhere just below lukewarm. It was actually pretty nice. Only, now his clothes were soaked. He was also… sitting between Haru's sprawled out legs and his sixteen year old self was not handling being so close to another naked person very well. Stammering, Yuki tried to stand up and remove himself from the tub, but Haru once again pulled him down.

"Yuki, stay here! It's nice, isn't it? I could sleep here. Can I sleep here tonight?"

Yuki shook his head and scrambled to the side, bringing his legs close to himself. He sat at the head of the tub now, Haru on the other, watching him.

"You… you can't sleep in here. You'll catch a cold or something… Plus grandma and I might need to use the toilet…" Yuki couldn't make eye contact with Haru, which was a new sort of thing to him. Usually he could look Haru dead in the eye and explain things to him easily. But suddenly he was feeling on edge, which wasn't the same nervous feeling he got when he had to talk in front of a lot of people or when he messed up big time. It was this odd clenching feeling in his chest and he lost track of his thoughts because his head felt too heavy and it just wasn't something he really liked experiencing.

Haru sighed and made a cup with his hands. He then scooped up water and let it fall on top of his head. He hummed out a pleased sound and repeated this. Yuki didn't look at him. He buried his face into his knees and tried to make sense of all this… weird stuff that was going on inside him at the moment. Stuff that was hard to understand. He wished he could go talk to his grandma about it but he knew she would just tell him that it would all be okay in the end or something similar. He had to figure this out on his own. He was sixteen; it was time to man up and face his problems. And since the prospect of facing such problems head on was terrifying, he planned to ignore it for a while and hope that it went away.

Without looking at Haru, Yuki managed to get out of the tub. This time, Haru didn't try pulling him back in. The white haired boy instead sat quietly, which was odd since Haru was never quiet. Yuki paid no mind to it. He instead went to the closet and took out two towels. He left one for Haru and used the other for himself. After drying as best he could, Yuki left the bathroom, closing the door on his way out.

His room was a bit stuffy but he wasn't disgustingly hot anymore. Dry clothes were put on and Yuki peeled the covers off of his bed before falling onto it. His damp hair soaked into his pillow but he didn't care. It would probably dry fast overnight. He let his eyes close but he didn't want to think about what had happened tonight. The flashes of past events caused him to open his eyes and stare at the wall. His back was to the door, so he didn't see when Haru came in, only heard the click of the door. He knew he should have locked it.

"Yuki?"

Yuki laid silent. Maybe if he pretended to be sleeping, Haru would go away. He didn't really want to talk about anything with Haru just then.

Haru obviously did not pick up on the hint, though. He stood by the door, the light from the hallway coming in and leaving a yellow stripe on the wall in front of Yuki. With a quiet sigh, Yuki rolled over and did his best to glare at Haru.

"What?" Yuki asked, trying not to sound too irked.

"Are you mad?" Haru was in the clothes he had left him, hands behind his back. He was looking directly at Yuki's face, searching. Searching for what, Yuki didn't know. He was pretty sure Haru didn't know how to read emotions very well.

Yuki sat up, crossing his legs and putting his elbows on his knees. Why was Haru so… like Haru? Yuki couldn't even think of what Haru was like other than Haru himself. His strange childlike self. Which, as much as it pissed Yuki off, he saw the innocence of it. It was sort of like having a sibling. Then again, it wasn't, because he had always been an only child and did not know what it was like to have a sibling. So maybe it was just like having a good friend. A friend that didn't want any bad blood between the two of them.

Yuki scratched at his head, adverting his eyes from Haru's stare.

"I'm… not mad. I just don't know what to think."

"Are you sad? Because Keito said if you're sad or mad I'm supposed to leave you alone. But I don't want to leave you alone! My chest hurts if I do. I don't like when Yuki is alone and is sad or mad."

Yuki met Haru's eyes again and kept silent. His grandmother had told Haru that? And Haru was able to feel hurt because of his own wish to be alone? He hadn't thought that Haru was able to experience that. That was… Yuki didn't know if it was nice or sort of depressing But Haru was able to feel things just like he did, and that was a relief. Even if Haru didn't understand it, it still lifted a weight off of him to know that all this teaching Yuki had been doing wasn't going to waste.

"I'm not sad. I'm actually… sort of okay, now that you told me. I thought that you were just a weird alien who couldn't understand humans, when actually you can." Yuki let himself smile for just a second. Why was it so nice to know?

"Well, I am an alien, but I'm not stupid, Yuki. Even though this planet is filled with stuff I don't know about and lots new feelings, I'm still able to learn."

Yuki's eyes widened at that. This was the first time he had heard Haru say something so intelligent. Maybe he wasn't as childlike as he had originally thought.

There was a knock on his open door and Keito stood in the doorway, small figure blocking some of the light.

"I got the ice cream out. It took a bit but I was able to do it. Haru, you're lucky Yuki told me to wash it, or else Sakura wouldn't have been very happy with you." Keito stepped in and handed Haru the dress. "Don't forget the hat downstairs. Make sure to return the clothes to her properly tomorrow, and thank her of course."

Haru smiled, nodded, and said a loud thank you to Keito. Yuki watched the exchange, glad that Haru seemed to respect his grandmother as much as he did. Keito gave a small wave and wished them a good night before leaving.

Haru put the dress on top of Yuki's dresser before walking over. Yuki sat perfectly still as Haru stopped in front of him. He looked oddly determined and Yuki didn't know why. Maybe he was going to say something? But instead of saying something, Haru leaned down and gave a soft kiss to Yuki's forehead. The red haired boy blushed and pushed Haru back.

"W-what was that for?!"

Haru tilted his head to the side, look of confusion coming onto his face.

"Was that wrong?"

"Where did you even learn to do that from?" Yuki covered his face, trying to compose himself. He didn't expect Haru to just kiss him like that out of nowhere!

"From TV. They said if you give someone a kiss it will make them happy. Are you happy?" Haru stepped closer to him again and Yuki quickly turned around. He fell to the side and curled in on himself, knowing he really couldn't look at Haru now.

"Stop watching so much TV, it's bad for you," Yuki managed out, trying to tell himself that maybe this was all a dream.

"But Yuki! I just don't want you to be sad or lonely anymore. I want you to be happy. If you're happy, then I'm happy!" Yuki could hear Haru smile, even though he wasn't looking at him. It was extremely embarrassing, the way Haru sounded like some school girl finally telling her crush that she liked him. Only Haru was a boy. A boy alien fish that happened to live with him and who knew what was going on in his head.

Yuki let himself take in several deep breaths. He was probably to regret saying this, but…

"Next time, do it properly." He was so quiet that Yuki didn't think Haru could have possibly heard him. But Haru did hear him.

"Okay, Yuki."

"Now go to bed!" Yuki smothered his face into his damp pillow, silently cursing himself for even thinking that had been a good idea to tell Haru such a thing. What was he trying to accomplish anyways?

Haru told him goodnight before leaving, even shutting the door on the way out. Yuki rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. Maybe it wouldn't be all that bad. Except… what if Haru told his sister what had happened? Hell, what if his sister had been listening?! He didn't know how protective she was of her brother, but he didn't think he wanted to find out. Yuki swallowed hard, hoping and praying that Coco would spare him.


End file.
